Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King [Digipak]

Performer: Dave Matthews Band
Engineer: Doug McKean; Wesley Fontenot; Josh Evans; Aaron Walk; Paul Suarez; Steve Rea; Dan Chase; Doug McKean; Russ Waugh; Floyd Reitsma; Lars Fox; Rob Evans; Sam Hofstedt
Producer: Rob Cavallo; Rob Cavallo
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Dave Matthews Band: Dave Matthews (vocals, guitar); Boyd Tinsley (violin); LeRoi Moore (saxophone); Stefan Lessard (bass guitar); Carter Beauford (drums, percussion). Personnel: Dave Matthews (vocals, guitar); Sharon Jackson, Gerardo Hilera, Vladimir Polimatidi (violin); Karen Elaine (viola); Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (keyboards). Additional personnel: Joe Lawlor, Tim Pierce (guitar); Danny Barnes (banjo); Alyssa Park, Sharon Jackson, Philip Vaiman, Gerardo Hilera, Alan Grunfeld, Vladimir Polimatidi, Laurence Greenfield, Joel Derouin, Sid Page, Jacqueline Brand, Roberto Cani, Natalie Leggett, Josephina Vergara, Michele Richards, Susan Chatman, Miwako Watanabe, Charlie Bisharat, Mario Diaz de Leon (violin); Matt Funes, Robert Brophy, Karen Elaine, Victoria Miskolszy, Darrin McCann, Andrew Duckles (viola); Chris Ermacoff, George Kim Scholes, Suzie Katayama, Armen Ksadjikian, Dane Little, Rudolph Stein, Steve Richards (cello); Rob Cavallo (piano, organ); Jamie Muhoberac (organ, keyboards); Roger Manning (keyboards); Timothy Eckert, Nico Carmine Abondolo (double bass); Arthur Robinson. Audio Mixers: Chris Lord-Alge; Doug McKean. Audio Remasterer: Ted Jensen. Recording information: Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA; Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY; Haunted Hollow Studio, Charlottesville, VA; Lightning Sound Studio, Hidden Hills, CA; Piety Street Recording, New Orleans, LA; Studio Litho, Seattle, WA; Studio X, Seattle, WA. Illustrator: Dave Matthews . The first studio album since the death of saxophonist LeRoi Moore, BIG WHISKEY AND THE GROOGRUX KING finds the Dave Matthews Band none the worse for wear and collaborating with superstar producer Rob Cavallo (best known for his extensive work with Green Day). Cavallo's way with an aggressive riff is in evidence on "Shake Me Like a Monkey," a funky track vaguely reminiscent of Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer," and the driving "Why I Am," which recalls the Knack's "My Sharona." Other songs, such as the groovy, polyrhythmic "Spaceman," find the band returning to classic jammy, chops-a-riffic DMB territory. Full of prominent hooks and snap-tight ensemble playing, BIG WHISKEY gave DMB fans another reason to rejoice. Tragedy has a way of putting everything into perspective, a truism that's brought into sharp relief by the Dave Matthews Band. LeRoi Moore, the group's saxophonist, died in an ATV accident in 2008, something that shook the DMB to their core and they've responded as any working band does: by carrying on, playing gigs -- including one on the day of his passing -- and finishing the album they were recording at the time of his death, turning Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King into a tribute to their fallen comrade. By saluting his spirit, DMB wind up returning to their roots, jettisoning any of the well-manicured crossover pop of Stand Up and reviving the loose-limbed jams that were their '90s specialty, a sound they've largely abandoned -- at least on record -- since 1998's Before These Crowded Streets. During that long, long decade between Before and Big Whiskey, DMB remained one of America's biggest bands even though much of those ten years found Matthews working through various existential crises -- things got too big so he pulled away from the band, turned out a dark solo record, then came back -- and his namesake band drifted along with him. Here, everything snaps back into focus: what was glossy is now clean and unvarnished; there is no avoidance of their rangy, loping rhythms or predilection for elastic solos; and these signatures -- shunned on record, not on-stage -- are embraced warmly, given muscle, and married to the dark undercurrents that have flowed throughout Matthews' new-millennium writing. Surely, Moore's early death weighs heavily here -- he is the GrooGrux King of the album's title and there are many allusions to him in lyrics -- but Matthews also ties in references to Hurricane Katrina and war, all as part of his wide-open meditations on mortality and morality. Not all of Big Whiskey is about death: there is an equal amount of love tunes, plus one of Matthews' casually vulgar sex songs, all celebrating enduring relationships, providing a counterpoint to the waves of melancholy. But what makes Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King the Dave Matthews Band's richest, and quite possibly best, album is the implicit message that all the love and loss can be felt and shared through the music, that the creation of the music itself is the reason why they're here -- and that's not just a moving tribute to LeRoi Moore, it's a reason for the band to keep moving on. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Spin (p.91) - "GROOGRUX is harder edged and more bottom heavy than DMB's usual fare....A fond, funky farewell." Billboard (p.53) - "[T]his eulogy is a celebration, and BIG WHISKEY is a dense, humid album that, befitting its New Orleans origins, shrewdly cuts its melancholy with exuberance and vice versa." Q (Magazine) (p.127) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]his latest effort almost shows signs of discipline: four-minute song structures and melodies that realise the benefit of economy." Paste (magazine) (p.58) - "[With] touching and tasteful tributes....The band takes some sonic risks and shows continued versatility on songs like 'Alligator Pie'..."

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Dave Matthews was born in South Africa, but it was after moving to Charlottesville, Virginia, in the 1980s that he assembled his world-beating band. Adding violin and multiple saxophones to the traditional rock-band instrumentation, Matthews and his cohorts created a unique, idiosyncratic sound that melded jam-band improvisation with elements of folk-rock, funk, and jazz fusion. A homegrown phenomenon, the band sold a stunning number of copies of a self-released debut album via non-stop touring. After signing to a major label, avoiding any artistic compromise in the process, the band immediately broke through on a national level, becoming one of the most popular groups in the U.S.

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